Who Is Mira Furlan

Mira Furlan (born in Zagreb, 7 September 1955; died in Los Angeles, 20 January 2021) was a Croatian-American actress and singer, and one of the best-known faces of Yugoslav theatre, film and television in the 1980s. She rose to fame as Ankica in Emir Kusturica’s When Father Was Away on Business, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1985.

After the breakup of Yugoslavia she moved to the United States. There she became known to a worldwide audience as Ambassador Delenn in the science fiction series Babylon 5 and as Danielle Rousseau in Lost. She also wrote newspaper columns, and her autobiography was published posthumously.

Early Life and Childhood

Mira Furlan was born on 7 September 1955 in Zagreb, then the capital of the Socialist Republic of Croatia, part of Yugoslavia. She grew up in an intellectual family that included many university professors.

Her mother, Branka Weil, was of Jewish-Serbian descent, and her father, Ivan Furlan, was of Slovene-Croat descent. She would later often point to this background as a symbol of a family that transcended national borders.

As a child she was fascinated by American rock and roll. She became interested in acting as a teenager, and the theatre soon became her calling.

Education

Mira Furlan graduated in acting from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb in 1978, at the age of 22. At the same time she took language courses at the university’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. She became fluent in English, German and French, which later proved a great advantage abroad.

Her education and command of languages were an important part of her public image. Colleagues often described her as a remarkably well-read and refined artist.

Beginning of Her Career

Right after graduating, she was offered a permanent position in the ensemble of the Croatian National Theatre (HNK) in Zagreb. On that stage she built a reputation as a serious dramatic actress. At the same time, she appeared more and more often on television and in films.

Her first notable roles came in the film Cyclops (1982) and the television series Velo misto, in which she played Kate. For her role in Cyclops she won the Golden Arena at the Pula Film Festival.

In the early 1980s she also sang with musical groups. For a short time she was the vocalist of Le Cinema, a spin-off of the rock band Film. She also appeared as a vocalist on two tracks of the 1983 album Nevino srce by the Slovenian band Buldožer.

Rise to Fame

The real turning point was When Father Was Away on Business (1985), directed by Emir Kusturica. Mira Furlan played Ankica Vidmar, the wife of a man arrested for a careless remark, whose family lives through hard years after Yugoslavia’s break with Stalin. The film won the Palme d’Or at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

She starred opposite Miki Manojlović in it. The film made her recognisable far beyond Yugoslavia.

More roles followed in The Beauty of Vice (1986) by Živko Nikolić, U raljama života and Za sreću je potrebno troje by Rajko Grlić, and then in Brothers by Mother (1988) by Zdravko Šotra and El Camino del Sur. She also appeared in the series Putovanje u Vučjak, where she shared the screen with Milena Dravić.

For The Beauty of Vice she won the Golden Arena for Best Actress at the Pula Film Festival in 1986. In 1990 she also received the Dubravko Dujšin Award. During this period she was one of the most sought-after actresses in the country.

Life Between Zagreb and Belgrade

In 1986 Mira Furlan met director Goran Gajić, her future husband. Because he lived and worked in Belgrade, in the late 1980s she travelled between the two cities twice a month. She performed in theatre productions in both Zagreb and Belgrade.

On the Belgrade stage she played, among other roles, Lea in The Dybbuk and Isabella in Theatre Illusions, directed by Slobodan Unkovski. She was also active in the Yugoslav feminist movement of the 1980s.

On television in 1990 and 1991 she played Finka Pašalić in the series Bolji život. That period marked the peak of her popularity at home, but also the beginning of her hardest years.

The Furlan Case and Leaving Her Homeland

After the war in Croatia began in 1991, Mira Furlan became the target of a public campaign. According to the sources, she was dismissed from the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb because she refused to stop acting in a Belgrade theatre. In the media she was labelled a “traitor”, and she received numerous threats, including messages on her answering machine.

According to media reports, she also lost the Zagreb apartment she had inherited from her grandmother. In 1992 the Zagreb weekly Globus published three serialised articles that played an important part in that campaign. Just before leaving, she wrote an open letter expressing her disappointment with the behaviour of her fellow citizens and colleagues.

She later said that one of the few people who defended her publicly was the journalist Viktor Ivančić. In November 1991 Mira Furlan and Goran Gajić left Belgrade and flew to New York. That break remained a theme of her life and of her book.

A New Beginning in America

In America she started over. In 1992 she became a member of the famed Actors Studio in New York. That same year, with the help of her theatre contacts, she obtained a work permit and played the lead in Lorca’s Yerma at the Indiana Repertory Theatre.

She performed on stages in New York and Los Angeles. She appeared in Brecht’s Baal at the Second Stage and in Shaw’s Don Juan in Hell, in which Edward Asner and René Auberjonois also performed.

In the title role of Sophocles’ Antigone at the Hudson Guild Theatre in Los Angeles, directed by her husband Goran Gajić, she won the Dramalogue Award in 1995. She also appeared in the television film My Antonia (1995), directed by Joseph Sargent.

Playing Delenn in Babylon 5

Her greatest international success came with Babylon 5, the science fiction series created by J. Michael Straczynski. Mira Furlan played the Minbari ambassador Delenn from 1993 to 1998, through all five seasons and in several of the television films.

According to Straczynski, she came to the audition at a time of great turmoil in her homeland. Delenn began as a mysterious diplomat and over time became one of the pivotal characters in the story. Together with her colleagues, among them Peter Jurasik, she helped create one of the most beloved ensemble casts in the history of the genre.

The character dealt with themes of peace, understanding between different peoples and the cost of conflict. These themes were close to the actress herself. Thanks to the role, she remained a favourite among science fiction fans around the world. In 1997 she also lent her voice to the character Silver Sable in the animated series Spider-Man.

Lost and Later Roles in America

From 2004 to 2010 she played Danielle Rousseau, a French scientist stranded on a mysterious island, in the hit series Lost. She appeared as a recurring guest in the early seasons and again in the final season.

Her lonely and distrustful character became one of the most memorable in the series. The role made her famous to a wide audience once more.

In 2009 she appeared in the NCIS episode “South by Southwest”. In later years she acted in the series Just Add Magic and the science fiction series Space Command, and she lent her voice to video game characters, among them the Butcher in Payday 2. Her voice in the animated series Arcane and the film Burning at Both Ends were released posthumously.

Return to the Balkans

After eleven years, in 2002, Mira Furlan returned to Croatia. She played the title role in Euripides’ Medea in a production by Rade Šerbedžija‘s Ulysses Theatre Company, directed by her longtime friend and colleague.

She then appeared in films and series from the region. She played Sonja in the film The Tour (2008), Jagoda in the series Vratiće se rode, Violeta in the series Najbolje godine and Lucija in the film Cirkus Columbia (2010). She also appeared in the films The Abandoned (2010), Twice Born (2013) and With Mum (2014), as well as in the series Vere i zavere (2016).

She last performed at the Ivan pl. Zajc Croatian National Theatre in Rijeka in June 2020.

Music and Writing

Besides acting, Mira Furlan also sang and wrote. In 1998 she released the album Songs From Movies That Have Never Been Made, and she sang in the band The Be Five, which released the album Trying to Forget that same year.

She occasionally wrote columns for the Split-based weekly Feral Tribune. A selection of those texts was published in the book Totalna rasprodaja. She also wrote the play Until Death Do Us Part, set in Zagreb in the 1970s.

She also taught in the liberal arts and sciences department of the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles. She wrote her autobiography in English. Her husband published it posthumously, and in Serbian and Croatian it appeared as Voli me više od svega na svijetu from the publisher Booka.

Greatest Achievements

Her career spans three different worlds: Yugoslav film and theatre, American stages and television, and a return to the regional scene. Her most important achievements include:

• the role of Ankica in When Father Was Away on Business, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1985;
• the Golden Arena for Best Actress for The Beauty of Vice (1986);
• the role of Ambassador Delenn through all five seasons of Babylon 5;
• the role of Danielle Rousseau in Lost;
• the Dramalogue Award for her performance in Antigone (1995);
• the Jury Award for Best Actress for The Abandoned at the Balkan New Film Festival (2013).

Personal Life

Mira Furlan was married to director Goran Gajić, who was born in Zagreb and is of Serbian descent. They met in 1986 and left Yugoslavia together in 1991. Gajić directed her in an episode of Babylon 5 and in several theatre productions, including Antigone.

They had a son, Marko Lav, born in America in 1998. The family lived in Los Angeles. The actress held both Croatian and American citizenship.

Because of her mother’s background, she often spoke about her Jewish roots. Colleagues described her as an emotional but courageous woman who spoke publicly about injustice.

Illness and Death

Mira Furlan died on 20 January 2021 at her home in Los Angeles, at the age of 65. The cause of death was complications of West Nile virus, as her manager Chris Roe confirmed to The New York Times. According to media reports, she had been in serious condition for several months beforehand.

The news was announced on her official Twitter account. Straczynski said that the Babylon 5 team had known for some time that her health was fading. Her place of burial is not publicly known.

Memorial gatherings were held in Rijeka, at the Ivan pl. Zajc Croatian National Theatre, and in Belgrade, at the Yugoslav Drama Theatre. Ivica Buljan, the head of drama at the Zagreb HNK, apologised on behalf of the theatre for its treatment of her in the early 1990s. A week later Globus also apologised for the 1992 articles.

Trivia

• She spoke English, German and French.
• As a child she was fascinated by American rock and roll.
• One magazine described her as “the Balkan equivalent of Meryl Streep”.
• Several of her films and series were released after her death.
• She wrote her autobiography in English, and it appeared posthumously in Serbian and Croatian.

Awards and Recognition

• 1982: Golden Arena for Best Supporting Actress, Cyclops (Pula);
• 1986: Golden Arena for Best Actress, The Beauty of Vice (Pula);
• 1990: Dubravko Dujšin Award;
• 1995: Dramalogue Award for Antigone (Los Angeles);
• 2013: Jury Award for Best Actress for The Abandoned (Balkan New Film Festival).

Legacy and Influence

Mira Furlan is remembered as an artist who bridged two worlds, the Yugoslav and the American. Rade Šerbedžija described her as a true heroine, vulnerable yet strong. Rajko Grlić called her the greatest Yugoslav and Croatian actress of his generation.

Her fate also became a testimony to the price that artists paid during the breakup of Yugoslavia. That is why, even after her death, she remains a symbol of courage and dignity. Fans of Babylon 5 and Lost still remember her as one of the most compelling television characters of her time.